Event ID 8232 — UNIX to Windows Password Synchronization Service -- Run-time Issues

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

UNIX to Windows Password Synchronization Service -- Run-time Issues indicates the functionality of UNIX to Windows password synchronization operations.

When Password Synchronization is configured for UNIX to Windows synchronization, and UNIX to Windows synchronization is functioning normally, passwords that are changed on UNIX hosts are synchronized on Windows-based computers and domains. The Password Synchronization pluggable authentication module (PAM) makes this possible by intercepting the password change request on the UNIX host, encrypting the password, and then sending the password change request to the Password Synchronization service running on the Windows-based computers with which it is configured to be synchronized.

Event Details

Resolve

Make sure the password can be changed

The user cannot change the password. Users can be prevented from changing their own passwords by Group Policy settings, such as the domain-level policy setting Refuse machine account password changes.

The user can also have difficulty changing passwords if password policies are not equally restrictive in both the Windows and UNIX environments. Ensure that password policies on Windows and UNIX computers that synchronize passwords are similar. Otherwise, if the user changes the password on the less restrictive computer, the more restrictive system might not accept the new password. Password policies that control minimum and maximum length, character case and alphanumeric mix, expiration, and reuse must be as close as possible between Windows and UNIX computers that synchronize passwords. Also, Windows and UNIX system administrators must ensure that that user names, including case, are identical on the Windows and UNIX computers. For more information, see Best practices for Password Synchronization.

Best Practices for Password Synchronization

• Ensure consistent password policies If you are providing only for one-way password synchronization, make sure that the password policy on the computer from which passwords will be synchronized is at least as restrictive in all areas as the policy on the computer to which passwords will by synchronized. For example, if you configure Windows-to-UNIX synchronization, the Windows password policy must be at least as restrictive as the policy of the UNIX computers with which it will synchronize passwords. If you are supporting two-way synchronization, the password policies must be equally restrictive on both systems. Failure to ensure that password policies are consistent can result in synchronization failure when a user changes a password on the less restrictive system, or the password might be changed on the more restrictive system even though it does not conform to the system's policies.

  Also make sure that Windows users are aware of any special password restrictions on the UNIX systems with which their passwords will be synchronized. For example, some versions of UNIX support a maximum password length of eight characters. For maximum compatibility with the default Windows password policy and these UNIX limitations, passwords should be seven or eight characters long unless you are sure that all UNIX systems can support longer passwords.

Verify

To verify the functional state of UNIX to Windows password synchronization, retry UNIX to Windows password synchronization. UNIX to Windows password synchronization is fully operational when the password synchronization succeeds, and functioning with warning conditions present if password synchronization fails for some passwords but succeeds for others.

If password synchronization succeeds for some passwords but fails for others, the UNIX to Windows Password Synchronization Service is likely fully operational, but there might be account- or computer-specific configuration problems preventing password changes from being synchronized on UNIX-based hosts.

Related Management Information

UNIX to Windows Password Synchronization Service -- Run-time Issues

Identity Management for UNIX